Unexpected
by Lorinhazuzu
Summary: What happens when Sam doesn't realize that her phone is missing until it is too late? She puts her foot in her mouth, of course!  Contents and character of A Cinderella Story don't belong to me, only the plot.  R&R


**Hey, this is my first story so I apologize in advance for any errors, or spelling mistakes. =)**

**Unexpected**

She didn't know what to do. He obviously wanted to know who she was – he wouldn't have plastered the whole school with those yellow leaflets looking for her if he didn't. However he was Austin Ames, and even though they had had a great time together at the dance, Sam knew it was only a one-time thing, because she knew exactly what would happen as soon as he found out who she was: Diner Girl. God, she hated that nickname, it was a goddamned job like any other, wasn't it? She shook her head, pushing the thought away. She was torn really, she wanted to tell Austin who she was, she wanted to be with him, the Austin that seemed to be deeper and sweeter than he let on, but she knew he'd probably never look at her again if she did tell him, Austin was after all the most popular guy in school and she was.. Well invisible. She better not say anything, he would forget about her and go back to his cheerleader girlfriend, Shelby Cummings soon enough. Typical. She sighed not exactly happy with her decision but determined to go through with it anyway.

Walking quickly down the hallway, for she was late for her AP history lesson; thanks once again to Fiona and her never-ending string of demands, she was too distracted to pay attention of where she was going and as she hurriedly turned the corner she bumped into an – unfortunately- very solid person. 'Ouch' she thought. So maybe 'bumped' was a slight understatement and the word 'crashed' seemed much more accurate. Frustrated she looked around at all the books that had flown of her arms with the impact and were now scattered around on the floor. She felt very much like stomping her foot on the floor at that point; this would just make her even more late than she already was. She knelt on the floor quickly scattering her books back into her arms and only then noticing that someone was kneeling down in front of her and picking up some of the books. Sam looked up at the person who was actually bothering to help her, and nearly dropped her books once again. 'Oh kill me now' the blonde thought as she looked into the apologetic face of one Austin Ames.

"Man, I'm sorry... Sam right?" He asked giving her a sheepish smile.

"Huh, yeah it is" She stuttered quickly dropping her head and letting her hair fall forward covering her face. 'God, would he recognize her?' she asked herself. She hoped he couldn't, that would just ruin all of her memories of the dance and the time she spent with him.

"Are you okay?" Austin asked once they were both standing up again, the weight of the books slightly pulling the small girl down was an amusing sight for him. He wondered why she needed so many books.

"Mmm..." was all the response she could give him as she looked around a bit desperately. In the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder whether her history teacher – Mr. Brown, would even let her in the classroom this late in the lesson; however she was more preoccupied with the handsome boy standing in front of her, looking at her curiously.

"You know, you could just dump half that stuff in your locker..." he said, an amused smile gracing his lips.

"Huh, well yeah but I need them" She told him nervously, wondering what the hell she was still doing there talking to him.

"All of them?" The amused tone was starting to annoy her. Yes, all of them, she thought angrily, because I was too busy slaving off for my step-mum to do any of my step-sister's – Brianna and Gabriella – homework that is due in today and I will be in so much trouble if I don't finish them b the end of the day.

"Yes, all of them" she all but hissed at him. Turning sharply on her heels, she started walking towards the library thinking that she might as well use the accidental free period to do the twins' work and leaving a surprised Austin behind.

It was much later that day that she noticed the absence of her cell phone. _No wonder Fiona hasn't been pestering me all day_ she thought as she nervously checked her back pack for the blue little Samsung. She couldn't find it. Anywhere. Not in her backpack or pockets or locker or… Oh. She remembered it now. She had bumped into Austin this morning, and her stuff had flown off everywhere, her phone had probably fallen somewhere around the corridor and she hadn't seen it. She sighed deciding she would go check in the schools' office, thinking that maybe someone had handed it in. All she knew is that she better find it soon otherwise Fiona would surely punish her for it.

She walked quickly towards the office, wanting to get her hands onto her phone as soon as possible and check the dozens of messages she was sure Fiona had sent to her during the day. However when she did get there Mrs. Hills assured her that no cell phones had been handed in for the duration of the day.

She set off towards the car park outside on low spirits, expecting to see her best and only friend Carter waiting for her, however instead of Carter, she saw Austin, standing by her car, a faraway look in his eyes that worried her very much. Had he figured out that she was Cinderella? Was he mad? Or, even worse, disappointed? She swallowed hard, her steps slowing down until she was standing in front of him, using her blonde hair as a shield and hoping he was here for some other reason.

"Hey Sam" he said giving her one of those charming smiles that made all the girls in North Valley completely melt. All except for her of course, although she did admit to getting a little weak-kneed , but that was only after she had found that he was Nomad, before that he was just some snob jock who thought the world revolved around him.

"Hey" she greeted back uncertainly. Why was he here?

"Um, look, I'm sorry about earlier today, I didn't mean to upset you or anything you know, I was just teasing" Not that he did that very often, but go figure, he felt quite at ease around the small blonde girl. Maybe it was because she didn't expect much of him besides behaving like a total jerk. Hence the apology, for some reason he didn't want Sam to think of him like that.

"Oh." He was apologizing? To her? Great. Now she felt terrible about snapping at him. "Right" she said, "don't worry about it, I just didn't have a very good morning and I was really late for my history class and then I ran into you and all my stuff went…" she trailed off realizing two things at once; one that she was babbling and two, that maybe, Austin had seen her phone and picked it up and that was why he was here; to give it back.

"Oh!" She said excitedly "You wouldn't happen to have seen my phone would you? I noticed it was missing just now, and I think I might have dropped it with the rest of the books."

"A phone? What does it look like?" He asked her curiously, wondering at the coincidence of the fact that his Cinderella had also lost her cell phone when she left the dance.

"It is a blue Samsung with stars on the front?" she told him looking around she only just then realized that his friends and girlfriend… ex-girlfriend were by his car watching them. Just perfect. She was too busy looking at his friends to see the shock written all over Austin's features while Austin was now looking at her flabbergasted though he was already going through a mental check list and coming up with the conclusion that it was undoubtedly her. He wondered ‐ now that he knew who she was – how he hadn't seen it before. It really was impossible to forget those beautiful hazel eyes.

"Cinderella?" the word escaped his mouth before he was even aware of what he was saying, his voice which came out soft, nearing a whisper was still enough to have the girl jumping around in surprise to look at him.

"Excuse me?" Sam couldn't help but notice that her voice sounded several pitches higher than usual.

"Cinderella" this time, it wasn't a question, she noticed.

"I… Why would you say that?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" She saw his confusion but still didn't answer. She didn't know what to say; besides her voice would have been drowned out by the shout that came from David – one of Austin's friends and team mates.

"Hey Austin! What you doin' talking to Diner Girl?" Sam could hear the laughter and sniggers coming from the group as Austin looked backwards at his friends before turning around to look back at Sam. He had an understanding look in his face that Sam found she didn't want to see, so throwing the books she had in her arms in the front seat of her car, she swung her backpack around and started looking for her car keys.

"Is that why?"

"I've no idea what you're talking about Austin" She said still refusing to look at him. Her hand searched around in her bag desperately looking for the keys that would get her out of there. Literally.

"Sam" He said warningly, his hands reaching for her shoulders and holding her in place. "Look at me." But she couldn't, especially not now that she could feel her eyes watering.

"Just…" she shrugged out of his grasp "Can I please have my phone back?" she asked as she went back to looking for her keys.

"Here" Austin said as he took the backpack from her and started taking out the books that were in there so that she could look more thoroughly, however the girl's eyes widened in horror knowing that the mask she had worn to the dance and that she had to hand back in today was in there. She didn't have any time to do anything about it though because soon, he was pulling out the very tale telling white mask out of her bag.

Austin looked down at what he was holding; his face full of wonder, happy that he had finally found the girl that had become his best friend in the last few months. Sam, who was still looking down at the mask he was holding with wide eyes didn't see the expression on his face. She didn't have any time to either because before she could understand what was happening Austin had dropped her bag and putting his arms around her pulled her against him in a tight hug, his chin resting on top of her head.

"Austin?" her voice came out muffled due to her face being pressed against his shoulder.

"I'm so happy I found you" was all he said.

She pulled away slightly to look at him although she didn't get very far since Austin refused to loose his grip on her.

"You are?" From everything she had thought that would happen when he found out about her, this had never crossed her mind.

"Of course I am. You didn't answer any of the messages I sent you since Saturday night, and after the dance when you wouldn't talk to me… I thought you would never tell me who you are. I'm still a bit upset that you didn't tell me, but I know now so it doesn't matter anymore." he teased her.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you" she said completely pulling away from him this time. She bit back tear as she saw both confusion and hurt on his face. She went on anyway, aware that his friends were watching them "but I still think it would be better if you just forgot about the whole thing."

"Forget…?" He asked looking like she had just stolen the ground from underneath his feet. "Why would you want that?"

"Because!" she cried "You're Austin Ames! You're friends completely despise me whenever they remember that I exist, and you! Well… we're not supposed to be friends Austin. The most popular guy at school can't be friends with the invisible girl." She told him sadly. She admitted it was unexpected that he hadn't been angry or disappointed that she was the girl everyone had taken to calling Cinderella, and he actually looked like he still wanted to be friends, but she knew it wasn't possible, she already had enough of her daily dose of humiliation as it was, she didn't need anymore attention on her, especially not her step-sister's that were sure to kill her if they ever found out that she was friends with Austin Ames.

"That's good" He said back to her.

She looked up at him surprised. Well what do you know? She was right after all and it didn't take long for him to forget her and go back to his old girlfriend and old ways.

"I was rather hoping we wouldn't be just friends" he finished.

Her eyes widened and she could feel the heat coloring her cheeks as she let the meaning of his words sink in.

"But…" Great. A sentence from him and she was reduced to a mumbling idiot. She thought as she struggled with her words, not sure if he was serious or not. "Are you mocking me?" she finally forced the words out. Sam watched as Austin's expression hardened and he pursed his lips.

"I can see why you would thing that but…" he took her face in his hands forcing her to look at him "no, I'm not. I don't think that hurting your feelings is something to joke about." He told her seriously, resting his forehead against hers. "Honestly" he said in a lighter tone "you should expect thin already. I mean, you didn't just think I'd forget about my Cinderella did you?" she watched as his lips stretched out into a playful smile.

"But your friends..." she trailed off, struggling to turn her face around and look at his friends that were still not being very quiet.

"My friends" he said forcefully bringing her attention back to him "will get over it"

"I don't think..." he cut her off before she could finish.

"I'm sorry about the way they've been treating you, and that I didn't stop them before."

She shook her head knowing full well that even though he was the most popular guy in school there wasn't much he could have done to stop them. It was good enough for her that he had never called her by that stupid nickname or had been impolite whenever their paths crossed, which wasn't even that often. She knew she couldn't be upset with him for not standing up for her because before last night he had barely known she existed, let alone that she was the one girl that he had been talking for the last couple of months.

"You don't have to apologize for their actions" she told him, wanting to make sure he wouldn't feel guilty about that, because really, there was nothing for him to feel guilty about.

"I know, I just thought I owed you an apology" he told her.

"You didn't. They do." She said giving his friends a pointed look. "And I don't think they will be apologizing any time soon."

"I'll talk to them. I don't think I can make them apologize but I can ask for them to stop calling you names" He said giving her a reassuring smile. She shrugged it off however. "If you made them apologize then it wouldn't be sincere and I wouldn't be interested in it, besides I don't really care about what they think of me" And she didn't. What really got to her was their inability to accept others for who they were, and their habit of stereotyping and labeling everyone. It was so unbelievably cliché that if it wasn't so annoying it would be amusing really.

She looked up at him and noticed he was smiling down at her. "You're amazing, you know that?" he said looking at her in a way that made her look down, to hide her blush.

"I guess I just learned how to deal with it " she said shrugging the compliment off. She didn't know what to do with them.

"So, does this mean you'll stop avoiding me now? Austin changed the subject, giving her a cheeky grin that made her stomach go up in knots.

"Well, I…" she looked at him uncertainly. He arched an eyebrow at her.

"You know, even if you do try to avoid me, it doesn't mean that you'll succeed" he teased her.

Sam couldn't help but smile at that. "Oh really?" she asked, an amused smile gracing her lips.

"Absolutely" he told her suddenly solemn. She sobered in response.

"Do you… Do you really mean that?" she asked unable to hide the insecurity in her voice.

"I really mean it" he told her softly, bringing her closer to him. He was rewarded with Sam smiling brilliantly at him.

"So, I was thinking" he started "How about that Big Mac?" To that she could only laugh, exercise which he was quick to join into.

Sam turned around and opened the passenger door of the car, indicating that he should hop in.

"We better get going then" she said, to which he grinned, quickly getting into the car and buckling up just as she started it.

They drove away without a glance back, too busy with each other, neither of them caring that without Austin, none of his friends had a ride home.

End

In my personal opinion I think the ending was very cheesy and all, but then again this **is A Cinderella story so… anyway tell me what you think!**

**Lorena M.**


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